Reflections of Hollows
by FullMetalLover13
Summary: Monsters of destruction seen in the reflections of water. First Chapter featuring my Bleach OC. Please enjoy, comment, or just continue being awesome. .
1. Chapter 1

A gray sky was instilled above me as I ran a thin stretch of land between the two waterways and under the tube. The tracks were held about 30 feet overhead and railings reached up around them to keep the train steadily in place. I had to get as far away from the screaming city as I could. As I bolted, worry flooded into my head about all of those still left behind me. But I couldn't stop to turn around now, and from the destruction I'd seen, there was no way that someone as powerless as me could go against whatever the hell was back there. Images replayed in my head; chunks of buildings collapsing, people being tossed through the air like rag dolls, crying children in the arms of their terror stricken siblings. But one image in my mind stood out…one I wasn't willing to accept as real. When I had looked down into a puddle the reflection showed something enormous walking into a crumbling apartment complex; wide white split mask, black holes for eyes, ashen exterior, eight awkward scrawny limbs, and giant curved horns that came down around either side of his face… No. I must have just been hallucinating. There was no way that a creature like that could exist. But somehow…I knew it _had _to be real…because I had seen something like this before. Thirteen years ago when I was just a little kid, I had been sitting on the swings, pumping my little legs back and forth, I sang a little song called 'Autumn Leaves' that was about the colors of fall and leaves floating down a river. Looking up to the sky, the clouds appeared gray and ready to burst with rain. All of the trees had turned to vibtant shades of bright orange and crimson. The only other person around was a woman near the train station about fifty feet away. She ran towards the tracks, fear plastered to her face. Once she reached the tracks, she opened her arms and tried to grab something. As if knocked over, she collapsed to the ground and the train approached. But the train was not what killed the poor lady. In the reflection of the calm river next to the tracks I had seen something….a gruesome beast….and it had something attached to its forehead, like a large tentacle. And dangling off of the tentacle was a small orange haired boy. I think that must have been what the woman was reaching for. After the train had passed, the woman had quite obviously perished. I wanted to run over and do something but didn't quite understand what was going on. So I stood up and watched as the same young orange haired boy ran up to her, this time not attached to any beast. He kneeled beside her and tried to move her but she was still as stone. The boy was sobbing and yelling in hopes to wake her up. Then I realized that she had to have been been the boy's mother…and he had just seen her motionless body. There was nothing he could have done. Tears streamed down my face in utter sympathy for him.

From that day on I swore to always try and protect people whenever I could. Because if I had acted more quickly in that moment, I may have been able to save his mother from this terrible fate.

That's when I heard a familiar voice shout my name. I turned around to see my best friend, Himitsu, sprinting towards me with a look of desperation stuck on his face.

"YOU NEED TO COME THIS WAY NOW! RIGHT NOW! SOMETHING IS BEHIND YO…."

But that was all I could make out. Because in that moment, I felt a bone crushing grip encase my entire body. Raised above the falling tracks, I felt my lungs sputtering for air. My eyes burst wide and my brain was filled with the image of the creature again. I couldn't move anymore. I could only watch as Himitsu jumped into the air, unsheathed a sword and swung it down onto some invisible force in one fluid movement. All at once my body had been released and I was falling; flying; breathing. But this feeling broke into a horrible reality within a split second. One of the train railings had become impaled straight through my chest. I let out a chilling, bloody gasp as my body remained face down to the water. In that moment, I saw that Himitsu hadn't just been swinging a sword at nothing…he had been battling the monster…and he was winning. Seeing that someone so dear to me would be alright gave me the single spark of hope inside that I desperately needed. My heart beat slowed and I found myself closing my eyes.

I awoke to needles poking and prodding at my skin. I might have screamed if I had the energy. Instead, my eyes blinked rapidly and mouth gaped open. Looking down I found a hole in my chest that was at least two inches in diameter. The blood...…. There was so much blood…all over the white sheets of the hospital bed. At least, I assumed it was a hospital. The two focused faces above me were covered in white masks and goggles. Their voices a demanding, loud mumble. What were they saying? If only I knew, maybe I would have realized how terrible my conditions were or that the railing had actually plunged itself through my right lung. But in that moment, all I knew was my shallow breath and the feeling of terror. That's when the blinding lights and scarlet stained sheets went black. The voices stopped and I was wrapped in perpetual darkness.

When my eyes fluttered open, the next thing I remembered was the warmth of tears on my cheeks and deep brown eyes staring down at me. But they weren't my tears. They belonged to Himitsu. As soon as he realized I had awakened, the tears stopped momentarily and he looked stunned, as if he never expected me to wake up.

"Hey," I heard myself saying in a groggy voice.

"You…..you're awake. You were asleep for so long….. I thought that….. I thought….," he replied between small catches in his words.

I looked up at him unsurely and hugged his neck as tightly as my limp arms could.

"Thank you," I whispered in his ear.


	2. Chapter 2

_In the day after I woke up from surgery I learned so much my brain felt close to bursting. _

Himitsu held me for a good few minutes and I could tell that he had actually feared my death just a couple of moments ago. I felt the warmth of his friendship slowly easing away a sharp pain in my chest. What was that pain, anyways?

That's when I remembered all that had happened; the creature, the battle, and most of all, the railing skewering my flesh.

I broke away from the hug and tilted my head down to look at my chest. As to be expected, it was bandaged thick with a bit of red coloring popping up through the white bindings.

"How did I…..survive this?" I asked the boy kneeling next to me. As soon as I said those words his face went from relieved to grave.

"I don't know," was his response. But his voice sounded a bit suspicious as if there were more to it than that.

Questions flooded my mind and I wanted to ask them all in one shot.

"What was that thing and how did you kill it?" was what I had decided to go with.

"Wait….you s_aw _that?" he asked in a voice tinged with disbelief.

"Well I saw it in the reflection of the river….and something very similar when I was a little girl. I never told anyone. I was still so small and no one would have believed that I had seen something so unreal take away the life of a woman. I mean she was on the train tracks and the train did seem to hit her. Granted that was after she had fallen…..And the little boy attached to the monster then showing up two minutes later? Impossible," I was rambling until I was suddenly cut off.

"They're called Hollows. Glad to see you're awake, by the way! I see the surgery went well. You'll have to thank our friend Momo later," a man with a green and white striped hat was telling me. His clogs clacked against the wood floor as he approached me.

"Hollo…..who are you?"

"Name's Urahara. Nice to meet you, Hanako!"

"Wait….how do you know my name?"

"Himitsu here told me all about you! And he had plenty of time to give me all the juicy details. You were out for a whole week after all!" his smile never faltered through his words. I couldn't tell if it was more comforting or unnerving.

I granted Himitsu a questioning look as if to ask if this guy was trust worthy with all of that information. Seeming to read my mind he returned me a reassuring smile.

"So, you said that the thing that caused all of the destruction in the city is called a Hollow…..what exactly is a Hollow?" My curiosity only grew as he fed me more information.

"A Hollow is the creature born from a human soul that didn't cross over to Soul Society for some reason. They eat the souls of the dead as well as the living. Each posses a supernatural ability of their own," he said this so naturally as if he were just common knowledge.

"What's Soul Society? Is that like heaven or more like hell?" I clung to his words as if my life depended on it….because who knows…..it actually might someday.

"Soul Society is simply where souls go after a person dies. This is also where Shinigami live. And before you ask a Shinigami's job is to ensure the passing of souls from the World of the Living to Soul Society, destroy Hollows, and give soul burials. A soul burial is when a Shinigami helps a human soul called a 'Plus', who is a lost human soul but not yet evil like a Hollow, make it to Soul Society."

I blinked, perhaps too rapidly, at all of this new information. It sounded like something out of a story book. Could this be the explanation to all of my questions? I guess it had to be….nothing else made sense. There was still one question I had left and as I thought about it harder, the more obvious the answer seemed.

"Himitsu…..does that mean that you're a Shinigami?"

At my question he looked down as if ashamed by something.

"I would have told you….I just didn't know how. And I figured if I ever told you, you'd be freaked out or call me insane," his reply came out apologetically.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing but knew I had to. So my best friend has been secretly living as a death god for all of these years?

"Wait a minute….to be a Shinigami don't you have to be dead?" it seemed so weird a question, asking if the brown eyes still looking at the floor beside me were actually dead.

"Well, no. You just need a soul. My living body stays here in the World of the Living while my soul is free to travel from here to Soul Society," Himitsu was making eye contact with me now. And for a moment he looked like an entirely different person. How had I not seen that something weird was going on this whole time? And…..why hadn't he trusted me?

"Oh, well okay then…..." I replied a bit more quietly than I had expected.

He looked a bit concerned again and opened his mouth as if to speak again; but in that moment I heard something that sent chills rocketing up my spine. It was a screech so loud that my body reverberating and my skull rattled. I froze in the fear of Hollows, the fear of not being able to stop imminent destruction, yet not in any fear of death. It was then that Himitsu rose to his feet and I finally realized that he was wearing the robe I saw him fighting in the day I came face to face with a Hollow.

Out of sheer instinct I grabbed his hand and looked up at him as if to say 'don't go, you'll be hurt'. He only gave my hand a quick squeeze and smiled at me.

"Don't worry, this is my job. I promise you I'll be right back as soon as I defeat the Hollow out there."

His words rung with such honest sincerity, that I had to believe them. So I let get of his hand and watched him bolt out the room. For some reason the inside of my chest tingled a bit. I blamed it on the injury and quickly moved on. Hoping I could see the battle, I pulled myself slightly up onto my elbows so I could get a better look out the window of the lightly colored room. Another twinge in my chest appeared, but this one far more painful. I decided now was not the time to be sitting up, let alone stressing out about a Hollow. So I reluctantly laid back down and instead stared at the ceiling above my head. That's when I remembered who else was in the room.

"So, Urahara, how exactly did you patch me up?" I asked the ever-smiling man.

"Oh! Well that was not so simple, dear. You see, normal surgery was not all it took. No, no. It took more than that to save you. My, were you hurt! I mean that pole went straight through you. I guess I should really be getting to the point. Basically, we had to give you some of Himitsu's power. He put half of his soul into you in order for you to keep living!"

"He…..gave me what?"

"Half of his soul. It gave you power to live on and well, there's one more detail you may want to know…."

"Well, tell me then."

"With half of his soul you also got some of his Shinigami abilities. You can separate your body and soul now and possibly even go into combat with Hollows in due time."

"I can...fight Hollows…?"

"Well not right now of course! You've been given no training. Plus you need to heal from this injury. Speaking of which, you should probably lie down and get some rest. I'll be in the other room if you need me!"

And with that, he left me alone with my head spinning in a haze of pain and total bafflement. How on earth was I supposed to fight Hollows?


	3. Chapter 3 Hanako in Wonderland

AN: Thank you so much for all who are reading this! Your views mean so much to me and I hope you enjoy the new chapter. :) Feel free to edit or review, I love hearing feedback!

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Ch. 3

I awoke out of a sleep I hadn't felt myself slip into and whipped my head around, scanning the room for any signs of my companion or the man with the striped hat. Realizing that the room was entirely empty and the sky peeking out of the window shone with the light of a full moon, the sudden urge to get up and explore entirely took over me.

A few hours ago the pain in my chest held the intensity of a roaring flame and had now, somehow, felt more like cooling embers. Now able to move with more ease, I propped myself up and swung my legs beneath me, slowly rising to stand. My chest felt as if it were collapsing in on itself for a moment but I held back the scream that threatened to escape my lips and wake up the entire house.

_"If this is going to work, I have to be silent as a ninja," _I thought to myself and almost laughed at the newfound irony held in that phrase.

Ever so carefully, I allowed my pinky toe to reach down and meet the cold bite of a sturdy wooden floor. Lightly shifting my weight, I completed the first step into the tantalizing darkness held behind the threshold that connected my room to a corridor; closely resembling the entrance to a cave. As I started stepping at a steady pace the phrase, '_Toe, ball, heel…Toe, ball, heel….," _was ever present in my head. Looking into the hallway, I could see rooms lined up; three on one side, two on the other. Apparently my room had been located at the end of the hall. As I peeked into the first doorway, I saw a cat curled up on a cot and thought about how peculiar that was…..giving a while bed to such a small creature. But, I suppose, everything was peculiar here. Suddenly I was reminded of a very strange story my mother had read to me once called "Alice in Wonderland" and felt instantly connected to Alice's emotions in the book; lost, confused, and hopelessly curious to what the future might have in store.

After passing the 'Room of the Cheshire' (as I decided to dub it), I continued to the next room. There, in the center of a cot, identical to that in the other room, Urahara sat lotus style with his eyes closed. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest and my breath hitched, in fear that he might open his eyes at the slightest hint of noise. But at that moment he let out a thundering snore and toppled to one side, still maintaining a lotus position. Trying not to burst out giggling, I covered my mouth with both hands and quickly naming his room without a second thought, 'The Mad Hatter's Domain".

The next room I passed featured a sweet looking girl with long black hair. She looked to peaceful but was surrounded in enough medical supplies to heal a small army. Taking a closer look at her, the faceless images from before, during the surgery, seemed to fill in.

"So she must be Momo….," I whispered and then regretted it a second later when I saw her stir from under a thick blanket. Sucking in air and hoping with all of my might that I could disappear in an instant I reluctantly awaited for her to wake up and blow my cover. Luckily, though, she just resettled and was soon breathing deeply again.

I took a moment to think over her gentle completion and helpful nature, suddenly knowing exactly what to call her room; 'The Palace of the White Queen'. I made a mental note of it and continued down the hallway with a bit more confidence and a bit less of an edge to my breathing.

The room adjacent to 'The Palace' held a boy with flaming orange hair. I took a moment to appreciate the color and had a hope churning in my stomach that it was natural. Since I naturally had such shockingly white hair for an 18 year old, I thought it might be nice to make a companion with this form of similarity.

The boy's face was nearly as unusual as his hair. Instead of bearing soft features, he instead bore creases all over as if he were in the midst of a fight, determined and angry, even as he slept. A thought popped into my head and I decided what to call his room; 'The Mouse House'. This teenager's demeanor had reminded me all too much of the knightly mouse in the storybook; strong and brave…but way too far in over his head".

The very last room held a boy with a similar room to Momo's in regard to the medical supplies strewn about the floor. The only noticeable difference was the trap door in the corner that had been poorly half-covered by a fuzzy blue area rug. The boy's face was settled with worry but remained sweet and gentle. I wondered if he always looked so distressed and felt a twinge of sympathy for this boy whom I was more than likely to meet soon. His face seemed to fill in for the previously unknown figure in the images that still raced through my head. After a moment, I named his room, "The Rabbit Hole," since his troubled complexion was almost identical to that of the rabbit with the clock.

The radiating pain in my chest decided that this had been enough moving around for one night so I began to sneak back to my room at the end of the corridor. The floor hadn't creaked once, right up until I entered my room and took a single careless step causing the wood to groan under my bare foot. I cringed in response and quickly looked back to the hallway which seemed to still be perfectly sound. Relieved, I turned back to my room only to be struck by sudden terror at the darkened figure standing right in front of my face. My eyes widened but before I could make a sound the familiar voice of my best friend whispered, "Ready for your first day of training?"


End file.
